1942: Malta Convoys and the Invasion of North Africa

Abstract

On 11 February 1942, the German battle cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, accompanied by the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen and a destroyer screen, sailed from Brest after dark, turning up-Channel unobserved by any British forces. Such a move had been expected in Britain and the most detailed preparations had been made to meet this eventuality — or its alternative, breaking out into the Atlantic — to be put into force by the codeword ‘Fuller’.